Detroit Shipping Container Condos In Development For 2013

A local firm is proving Detroit development can get way wackier than Dan Gilbert’s garish interior design scheme at the the Chase Tower. Three Squared will build a 20-unit, 26,000 square feet condo development constructed of shipping containers at Rosa Parks Boulevard and Warren Avenue.

Designed by local architect Steven Flum, the project has been in development for several years but was halted after the 2008 crash. Now, Three Squared plans to begin construction on a three-story model unit on Michigan Avenue by the end of the year to pre-sell condos, with the development itself slated to be built in spring 2013. According to the Detroit Free Press, the development will cost $3.4 million, and Multihousingnews.com notes they received a $603,000 tax credit.

The news site reports the four-story building will include 93 shipping containers and designed to be energy efficient, reducing energy costs by up to 80 percent.

Too expensive to return to their place of origin, used shipping containers pile up by the hundred thousands at ports in the U.S., and using them for homes and offices is one way to recycle them. A more common form of sustainable architecture in Europe, there are examples in America, and in fact, a boutique shipping container hotel is in the works in Detroit’s Eastern Market.

But that doesn’t mean everyone could get used to living in a glorified box, and there are other downsides to the construction material. What do you think — would you live in a shipping container condo? Let us know in the poll, and take a look at another example of shipping container architecture at a French hotel.